Tag Archives: organization skills

Post navigation

I have decided to accept Lisa Rivero’s challenge to write 30 blog posts for the month of September. I intend to try to add 10 posts to each of my 3 blogs during the month of September. Sprite’s Site will feature posts about posts!

Another important means of communication on Sprite’s Site is Post-it Notes.

Sprite uses the sticky Post-it notes to leave me messages. She leaves hints about her Christmas and birthday wish lists

The Memory Elephant had made an appointment with the Origami Secretary Bird to discuss the delineation of duties for Memory Elephants and their owners. Not only had Sprite expected that the Memory Elephant would set up files and folders for her memories without any thought or consideration made by her; but she had also not been filling in the calendar which she was given as a New Year gift.

This had become apparent when someone asked when Tweet and Retweet’s egglets were due to hatch and the dates they were laid had not been entered. Fortunately we knew that the blue egg was laid the day after Valentines Day and the pink egg two days later. This means they are due to hatch on 7th and 9th March. We were able to fill in the dates.

When I asked Sprite why she was not using the calendar she told me that it was just too overwhelming! She wanted to fill in all the important events she knew about (for example the Annual Lobster Fest in October ) and all the holidays and celebrations (her blog birthday in June) and then all the Dabrowski dogs wanted her to fill in different dates as well.

Sensual Dabrowski wanted her to add all the appointments booked for Paws for Poise Parlour visits.
Intellectual Dabrowski wanted her to add anniversaries of the births and deaths of all the famous scientists, mathematicians, authors, artists and musicians he could remember. He also wanted her to record occasions such as Talk like a Pirate Day, International Dot Day and Pi Day.
Emotional wanted the dates for all the marches organized by Sprite and the social responsibility events recorded such as Clean Up Australia Day
Imaginational Dabrowski wanted her to include all the events that SHOULD exist even if they do not exist already.
The only one not anxious to write dates on the calendar was Psycho Motor Dabrowski who suggested that their time would be much better spent if they went down to the beach and flew kites.

The Memory Elephant reminded Sprite that they had heard that the Rosebud Kite Festival would be held on 10-11th March and suggested that she should fill in the dates on her calendar so that she would not miss all the fun of the event!

Sprite learnt a valuable lesson about her part in her own learning this week.
When she returned from visiting Meredith and Merebith she was angry with her Memory Elephant for not creating files and folders where her memories could be filed and easily found when needed.
I found her scolding the Memory Elephant and demanding to know why the elephant had not put any of her memories in files or folders.
I reminded her that Starjump Starfish, Maxine Cowie had advised her in a response that she should create images of files and folders in her mind in order to file and be able to retrieve her memories and instructed her to contact her again; but Sprite had never actually taken the step of creating files.
The Memory Elephant was looking most aggrieved! “I tried to tell her that I can only put the memories in files and folders if Sprite tells me where they have to go! She has to be responsible for setting up the files and telling me where to put all the different memories if she wants to find them again! If I just file them for her without her even thinking about it, she will never know where to find anything! A Memory Elephant can only do so much, you know!”

School holidays and weekends are a great time to get your room organised.
Here are some ideas to help you.

Try to keep your goal small. Instead of “tidy my room”, which has so many
steps, so many possibilities, it’s better to think of one thing in your room
that needs organising. Like “collect all the books”. Then you gather up all the
books. It’s quicker and you know exactly what to do. Once they are collected,
you can decide the next step. Have you finished with some? Could they be donated
to some other children? Are some books really special? Where will you keep them
so that you can read them again and again?

What’s next? Are there clothes on the floor or in other places they don’t
belong? Dirty clothes can go straight to the laundry or clothes hamper. Do you
have a hamper in your room to catch dirty clothes? If the clothes are clean, do
they still fit? And where will they go? So many decisions to make! Perhaps you
could ask for some help if you get stuck making decisions.

I think you have enough jobs to get on with for now. But can I give you one
last suggestion? You are so clever at figuring things out. Once you’ve decided
where the books and clothes (and other things) will go, would a list of “rules”
help you to remember next time?

Let me know how it works out for you, Sprite. Which bits worked and which
didn’t?

Wish 2 Sprite: I wish that someone would help me to clean up my room and get organized!

Sprite has been visiting Angela Esnouf’s Creating Order from Chaos website at http://www.creatingorder.com.au/ and Angela has promised she will write a letter to Sprite giving her some basic tips for getting organised.

Wishes 3 Sprite: I wish that Ginger Pony had a friend because it is really lonely if you don’t have a friend
and 4 Sprite: I wish that I could work out why Bea doesn’t like me. I wish someone could help me work it out!

Hi Sprite,
You and Ginger pony and all your friends can
come and join Buddy and his team at Horse Instincts
during the school holidays if you like?

Buddy, Maestro and the herd help train people of all ages
in the subtle cues of body language and communication.
They are great at it. It is fun and easy to learn.
It can really help reduce your stress levels when making
friends and being around lots of people or new ones.
We hope you can come and visit.

Sprite was sitting on the grass with Columbus cheetah and the Dabrowski Dogs, blowing dandelion seeds into the air and making wishes.

This is the conversation I heard.

Sprite: I wish that Dr Laurie Marker won’t be too sad without Chewbaaka and that the Chewbaaka Memorial fund will bring in lots of money for cheetah conservation.
(You may remember that Sprite chose Dr Laurie Marker for her notable person to study for Night of the Notables http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=545 and she and Columbus Cheetah dressed up as Dr Laurie Marker and Chewbaaka)

Sprite: I wish that someone would help me to clean up my room and get organized!

Intellectual Dabrowski: I think Jo was talking to Angela Esnouf from Creating Order from Chaos about that a little while ago. Her website is at http://www.creatingorder.com.au/

Sprite: I wish that Ginger Pony had a friend because it is really lonely if you don’t have a friend.
(I was not sure whether she was displaying genuine empathy and concern for a real problem Ginger Pony was suffering, expressing her own loneliness by projecting it on Ginger Pony, or whether this was a ploy to get a second real pony!)

Sprite: And I wish that I could work out why Bea doesn’t like me.

Psycho Motor Dabrowski: Don’t worry about it! There are dandelion will- o- the -wisps to chase!

Emotional Dabrowski: It makes people feel sad and confused if they think people don’t like them and they don’t know the reason. It makes me sad too!

Intellectual Dabrowski: Let’s look at this logically. Do you have any real evidence that Bea doesn’t like you, Sprite? Has she said or done anything mean?

Sprite: No, not really… but…

Imaginational Dabrowski: Maybe it is the way she looks at Sprite. Sprite isn’t very good at understanding what people mean by their facial expressions. Maybe she thinks Bea is sneering at her but she isn’t really! Maybe Sprite is just imagining that Bea is sneering.

Sensual Dabrowski: I don’t know. I think Sprite picks up a lot of things, sort of by osmosis, from subtle cues like body language; so she can’t quite work out why she thinks Bea doesn’t like her; but she just has an overwhelming feeling that it is true.

Homework was another area which we needed to get organized as it was rapidly becoming a battlefield. Sprite’s ruses to avoid doing homework were escalating at the same pace as my attempts to help her to get organized.
It was turning into homework wars!

• Have a set place and time for homework
• Have the routine use of the homework notebook well established
• Allow some time for relaxation or outdoor activity and a snack before commencing homework (note the life balance wheel)
• Ensure that necessary information and equipment is available
• Parents need to provide support and encouragement without taking over the work and need to be prepared to advocate for alternate or more suitable homework for the child if necessary (especially in the case of 2E students)

I noticed that Sprite had put a picture of a small dog on her pin board. “That is Rio, the Homework Dog,” she told me. The Homework Dog has his own website at http://thehomeworkdog.blogspot.com/